Mena
Mena is a city in Polk County, Arkansas. It is also the county seat of Polk County. It was founded by Arthur Edward Stillwell during the building of the railroad. The town was named after Mena Janssen de Goeijen, the wife of Stillwell's primary investor, Jan de Goeijen. Along with the Kansas City Southern Railroad, Highway 71 runs directly through the town. History Pre-War Prewar Mena has had its fair share of controversy in its history. Things such as the founding of Commonwealth College, destroyed in 2053 for its connections to the Communist Chinese regime, in the county, and the vast chem trafficking ring that operated from the Mena Municipal Airport in the late '80's. Mena has also had its fair share of tragedy (not the least of which was the nuclear war of 2077). In 2009 a tornado tore away a great portion of Mena, killing three. Just before the great war, the small community of Hatfield, Arkansas was ground zero for the detonation of a suitcase nuke. The War Being the small town it was, Mena had no warheads aimed down its throat. However, the proximity to Fort Chaffee and the Pine Bluff Arsenal, as well as the dirty bombing of nearby Hatfield, Arkansas have caused Mena to retain places of high radiation and mild mutations over the post-war years. Post-War After the war, chaos overtook the small town of Mena. Raiders, slavers, and mutations ran rampant in the bloodstained streets. Eventually, the wealthiest of the pre-war families undertook a construction project that rivaled the walls of New Vegas. North of Highway 71 (directly on the railroad), using a long train as the base, the families, with the help of mercenaries and the remains of The Hatfield Lumber Company, created a long wall separating the oldest, and most intact, section of Mena from the wastes. Old Mena After the wall, nicknamed Davis's Wall, was raised in 2087 by Mayor Gregory Davis, the remains of the pre-war Mena Police Department, as well as many people from the community that the families chose to include in their plans, formed the totalitarian regime known as the Peacekeepers. The Peacekeepers then proceeded to run every person that the families didn't approve of out of the silver spoon of Old Mena and into the surrounding wasteland. These cast-outs formed what is now known as New Mena. Then the restoration years began. Generations later, the citizens of Old Mena are oblivious to the hells of the Ouachita Wasteland, most don't think about the land outside the walls, and those who do know it has to be awful. New Mena The promise of a utopian society of pre-war splendor drew the attention of many refugees of the war and, in later years, tickled the ears of weary wastelanders from Texas all the way to the edges of the Mississippi River Delta. Wasters were met with disappointment, and, often, death. This was either from the journey to the idyllic valley in the Ouachitas that housed this utopia, or by the Peacekeepers as they tried to infiltrate the wall. Those that didn't die set up on the south side of what was once Mena's Main Street, spending the rest of their lives staring in vain at a prize they couldn't have. Inhabitants Aside from the Peacekeeper Expeditionary Force, most inhabitants of Old Mena never have to deal with the harsh life of the wasteland, due to the very controlled environment of their restored, walled city. Their day to day life consists of school for the kids, work for the dads, cooking and cleaning for the moms, and chasing opossum for the dogs. Very rarely does anything of any great excitement happen, save for a few parades and the occasional chem bust, or a stray gun that Little Timmy found in his grandpa's old Resource Wars crate. The current Mayor of Old Mena is a woman named Ruth Bell who has been in office for over twenty years. The Chief of the Peacekeepers is Christoph Gray who inherited his position upon his father's long overdue retirement. Surprisingly, Old Mena has two ghouls living inside of its confines, the Judge and Frank. Remnants of the families that were integral to the formation of the city still live in manors and mansions surrounding Jansen Park and continue to exert an inexorable amount of control over the governing of their town. Economy Old Mena in its history has had an almost self-sustaining economy with little in the way of supplementation from the outside wasteland (mostly because wasters hold large grudges against the citizens of Old Mena and the Peacekeepers). A small mint was opened outside of Old Mena's walls in the year 2109 following the Expeditionary' raids of several local bank vaults that produced copious amounts of copper, silver, gold, and small ingots of platinum. Since then the Expeditioners have made it a side crusade to procure more precious metals for Old Mena's currency. The system of currency used by Old Mena consists of $5 copper pieces, $30 silver pieces, and $50 gold pieces, as well as rare bank tokens of platinum that draw $100 on Old Mena's scaling system. Converted into caps of the outside world a $50 gold piece is worth about 250 caps. Generically there is around a 1:5 Old Mena dollar to wasteland cap conversion rate. Old Mena's coins have something that Mayor Jeanette Gilchrest dubbed "the wasteland standard" in 2111, meaning they are backed by the wasteland's currency, caps. However, in 2287 the supply of caps has run dangerously low, causing Old Mena to import less and less from the outside and the value of the coins to the wastelanders to cease to exist. By 2289 the Mayor of Old Mena ceased all conversion of Old Mena coins into caps, forcing the walled city to become self sufficient. This has proven increasingly difficult for the citizens of Old Mena, who, until now, had been pampered by their government. Prices inside of the walls have inflated tremendously and the value of the Old Mena dollar to the common citizen is based solely on his faith in his government. Government Old Mena's government is loosely based on the town's government from before the war. That is, three governing branches, the legislative (city council), executive (Mayor), and judiciary. The current government consists of the town's mayor, the Neighborhood Council serving as the legislative, and the Judge. Mayoralty Old Mena utilizes its mayor as the head of state, a prospect that, due to legislative laxness has afforded a great deal of power to the office of mayoralty. Mayors in post-war Old Mena aren't generally elected, but appointed by the previous Mayor, with consent from the two other branches, this is with the rare exception of Gregory Davis who was the surviving pre-war mayor of Mena. Mayors of Old Mena command the Peacekeepers by way of appointing their Chief (despite it having been one family for nearly 250 years). Through control of the Peacekeepers, the mayor is the main enforcement entity of Old Mena. The mayor also has no set term limit and merely retires when he/she feels ready to. Some have actually died in office. The mayor also controls the legislative branch's powers when they are not in session. This lopsided system of checks and balances grants the mayor of Old Mena nearly complete control of the city. Neighborhood Council The Neighborhood Council makes up the legislative body of Old Mena and consists of the descendants of the families that were responsible for creating what is now Old Mena. The council consists of the 7 families living around Jansen Park, 4 of which are direct descendants of the original families that financed the walls around the city. The Neighborhood Council, when in session, agrees on laws and debates changes in the Old Mena constitution. They meet at their own leisure, but must have at least two meetings per year to discuss the economy and renovations to the law system. Most often however, they vote to deem the state of the economy and the state of the justice system satisfactory and then end the meetings quickly. The Judge Full Article: Judge Thomas Oglesby The judiciary branch of the Old Mena government has been filled by one man since before the war, a ghoul named Thomas Oglesby. He is an outspoken individual who opposes the isolationist lifestyle of Old Mena. Most often he is bullied into following the will of the Mayor and siding with the Peacekeepers in all disputes. In small claims, however, he follows the old laws of before the war to the letter. Mostly he just sits in his bench and complains of boredom. He is not allowed to leave the courthouse and sleeps in a room behind the courtroom. Military Full Article: Peacekeeper Expeditionary Force The inside of Old Mena is peaceful, for the most part, but, on the outside, the walls are prone to assault by disgruntled wastelanders and factions wanting entry and control of the safe and stable community. Peacekeeper marksmen are placed on the ramparts of the walls, but sometimes an extra hand is needed. This hand comes from the Peacekeeper Expeditionary Force, PKE for short. The PKE is composed of wastelander mercenaries commanded by high ranking individuals from the Peacekeepers inside Old Mena. The Expeditioners are integral to the defense of the walled city and to the salvage of any pre-war technology that might prove valuable to Old Mena. Foreign Relations Old Mena, since its creation, has made its fair share of enemies, but its prosperity (and wallet) have also garnered it some allies as well. Most non faction wastelanders hold a fair share of animosity toward the Peacekeepers and citizens of Old Mena. Allies Although its enemies way outweigh its allies, those who do side with the people of Old Mena do so purely for financial gain. Due to their similar anti-mutant, anti-apocalypse mentality the Enclave looks favorably on the city, however they do not actively hold a prescience in the area around Old Mena. Another ally that is much more actively tied to new Mena is the Ouachita Brahmin Company, who actively supplies brahmin meat to Old Mena in exchange for the support of the Peacekeeper Expeditionary Force against the Atila Tribe who they have pushed from the plains of the west Ouachita Wasteland. Unbeknown to the brahmin ranchers, Peacekeeper supported merchants charge citizens a large tax on brahmin meat that they give back to Old Mena. In turn they are guarded by PKE soldiers. The Jailers, a fanatical religious group that runs the pre-war Ouachita Correctional Facility are also on favorable terms with the police-like nature of the Peacekeepers and will take prisoners and unwanted from Old Mena or any of the surrounding areas if Old Mena sees fit to send them away. Enemies The enemies of Old Mena are many and varied and nearly anyone who wants access to Old Mena is considered an enemy of the state. The citizens of New Mena, despite having power and water (at a price) from Old Mena, actively detest the walled city and several conspiracies have been squashed to break down the gates and take the city for themselves. The Neighborhood Council found this thought so alarming, they called an emergency meeting and mandated a Expeditioner sponsored Sheriff of New Mena. This caused an uproar from the wastelanders and, without the help of the PKE forces, the Sheriff would've been killed. Now a complex system of Marshalls, the Sheriff, and deputies has been ratified into law by Old Mena for assuring water, power, and gun taxes are payed. Another influential enemy of Old Mena is the remnant of The Hatfield Lumber Company. After the wall was finished in 2087 the lumber company was payed, but not allowed entry into the population of the walled city after several members on their board of directors began to ghoulify. They hold a grudge against the Peacekeepers and largely remain unbothered by Old Mena due to the giant radioactive crater that is located next to the lumber companies headquarters. Other enemies include citizens of Old Mena that have been banished from the city due to crimes or taken to the Ouachita Correctional Facility by The Jailers. The Rakshasa Tribe from caves in the Ouachitas, "...think of us as a sort of boxed up feast. God help us if any ever make it inside the walls." - Christoph Gray. Infrastructure The infrastructure of Mena, in the years before the wall was erected was terribly damaged by the fighting that consumed its people. The families, the police, the mayor, and the judge, as well as all other law abiding citizens hid in the fallout shelter in the basement of the middle school (built in the early 1950's) and stayed inside for nearly two years until the plan to wall up the city was proposed by Mayor Davis. They emerged, the police with still working weapons (mostly .38 Special Police Revolvers and shotguns) and cleared the courthouse and city hall of raiders and slavers respectively. The damage to the residential district, including north main street, was comprehensive. The pools of Jansen Park were even filled with decaying bodies being feasted on by all manner of wildlife. The newly resurrected government contacted several large mercenary companies that had formed, as well as the remnants of pre-war industrial businesses such as The Hatfield Lumber Company and the Ink Cement Company as well as many other handy individuals and pitched their idea of restoring and walling a pre-war city. With the promise of payment and entrance into the settlement, the groups agreed to help them restore the city. This was shortly after the wall was built and during The Restoration Years the large metal gate that covers the main street entrance to Old Mena was left open as the outside forces worked to rebuild and restored Old Mena to it pre-war state. In the end, after the restoration was finished, the mercenaries were granted citizenship, but were forced to sign a contract that they would serve in and supplement the MPD in the formation of the Peacekeepers, the concrete company had a few of its wealthiest members granted citizenship (the rest were exterminated by the Peacekeepers for trying to start a coup while inside the walls) and the lumber company was forced out of the city when it was revealed that its CEO had become a ghoul. Powering the Apocalypse Shortly after renovations were finished, citizens of Old Mena noticed that their Nuka Cola was warm and they couldn't watch tv anymore. An emergency meeting of the Neighborhood Council was called. It was decided by Mayor Davis that power was integral to their new city. He launched a campaign for power and formed the now disbanded Peacekeeper Corp of Engineers formed from enterprising wastelanders and people from Old Mena who still knew how to tinker with electronics. Once again Peackeepers ventured out (this was before the formation of the PKE Force) and contacted organized groups of mercenaries, merchants, and scientists. Most of the pre-war power in Mena came directly out of coal plants in Louisiana and, originally, this was Davis's goal. But, when the Peacekeepers and the engineers reached the southern boarder of Arkansas, they heard tales of mutations and vicious raiders. This didn't deter Mayor Davis, who followed as commander of the small army. But, when they reached the pre-war town of Cullen in 2095 they were ambushed by a group of swamp people wearing burlap bags and goggles on their head. They lost nearly 50 men, along with Mayor Davis. They pulled back up Highway 371 to Lake Earling and finally ended up in Texarkana. Finally they were back on Highway 71, something they recognized. They eventually ended up in DeQueen and found its interior impassable. Opting for a path of least resistance, they went northwest, skirting the exterior of the city before finally they stumbled upon the solution to their problems. In the glaring August sun stood DeQueen Dam. The engineers immediately set up camp. They renovated the power generation turbines and reconnected the power station and the dam by way of a narrow underground tunnel. The tunnel was completed in 2125 and Mayor Gilchrest ceremonially relight all of Old Mena and parts of the surrounding wasteland. Category:Places Category:Communities